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We are excited to announce the launch of a brand-new artist – Ryder.

“My work was inspired by the need to escape from the sometimes harsh realities of this world.”

‘Artist’ : an all-encompassing term that wraps up many a discipline in a cultural blanket of human expression and progress. Occasionally, an individual emerges who blurs the lines between these disciplines, breathing narrative into visual art and illustration into the twists and turns of fictional writing. Ryder is one such artist.

Dangerous Liaisons

Limited Edition of 95

£595

The Greatest Show On Earth

Limited Edition of 95

£595

In 2002, the world famous Pompidou Centre in Paris devoted a headline exhibition not to an artist but to a literary critic, and that critic was Roland Barthes. For the purposes of penetrating the veneer of mystique around Ryder, we must take as our reference text Barthes’ critical essay entitled ‘Death of the Author’. In it, Barthes surmises that one must disengage with the author to appreciate text in its truest form. In essence, he asserts that we as an audience have subjectively imposed upon us – that our knowledge of an author, painter or poet ultimately colours our opinion of, and attitude towards, the piece itself. He urges us to look beyond the constraints of the simple answer, the easy route, and to judge each creation on its own merit.

Over The Moon

Limited Edition of 95

£595

The Exhibitionist

Limited Edition of 95

£595

The more thought one gives to this notion, the more weight Barthes; argument carries; what a tragedy if one were unable to simply appreciate the beauty of a Van Gogh without searching for signs of madness within its composition. ‘Death of The Author’ promotes empowerment and gives us back control; no dictatorial biography, instead a metaphorical blank canvas for us, the audience, to take charge and form our own opinions.

The Chase

Limited Edition of 95

£595

In The Night Garden

Limited Edition of 95

£595

Thus we come to this collection. Ryder is no more, no less than a name on a piece of paper. No artist biography to influence your impressions, no collection overview to police your critique, just the art laid bare. As Barthes stated, :”it is language which speaks, not the author”, and so we have given Ryder a voice and allowed the art to do the talking.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the First World War, we are unveiling a miniature war sculpture that will also raise funds for The Royal British Legion.

On Monday 4th August, we will unveil ‘Never Forgotten’ by Nic Joly, a poignant commemorative piece to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. We are hoping to raise thousands of pounds for The Royal British Legion through the sale of miniature limited edition sculptures.

The Royal British Legion is the UK’s leading Armed Forces charity, providing practical, emotional and financial support to all members of the British Armed Forces past and present, and their families.

Nic Joly, who is known for his miniature pieces of sculptural theatre, has created 1,566 bronze pieces, reflecting the number of days that the First World War was fought. Joly has also included information on the back of every one to explain what happened on that particular day, making each one unique.

Each piece costs £695 and £100 from each sale will be donated to The Royal British Legion.

The artwork depicts two soldiers raising a red poppy – a direct reference to one of the most iconic images of war: the Joe Rosenthal photograph of US soldiers raising the flag on the island of Iwo Jima during the Second World War.

A spokesperson from The Royal British Legion, said:

“We are delighted that Nic has chosen The Royal British Legion to receive a share of the income from his fantastic project.

It is particularly poignant in this, the centenary year of the beginning of World War I, that he has chosen the poppy, the national symbol of remembrance, as the centrepiece of his work. The Royal British Legion was founded in the aftermath of The Great War and has, since 1921, provided support for the Armed Forces Community. Nic’s amazing gesture will help us to continue our work with serving personnel, veterans and Armed Forces families who are in need of help.”

Nic said he was inspired to create the original piece, the idea for which was conceived in 2012, after meeting a 96-year-old war veteran who had flown a glider into Arnhem in the Second World War, just weeks after the D-Day landings:

“In my own small way, I want this piece to remind us that all those who have given their lives in conflicts from The First World War until the present day will be ‘Never Forgotten’.

I was struck by the fact that what we all think of the first war is as distant history, a black and white image based view. The meeting made it all so real, and so relevant. All those that fought and died were just like you and me – they were normal people in a terrible situation but doing incredible things.”

As a gallery we feel privileged to have the sculpture on display for the lovely pole of Edinburgh to come and remember the lost soldiers of the First World War. ‘Never Forgotten’ is an emotive piece and reminds us to remember all those past and present, who have served and given their lives for the country.

The work of Alex Ross simultaneously appears to occupy both fantasy and reality.

On the one hand, he compels us to believe in the superhero ideology, his characters simply explode off the page, exquisitely capturing the essential thrill of a graphic novel, masterfully conveying the exhilaration of flight for Superman or deftly portraying the dark nobility of Batman.

Look! Up in the Sky!

Giclee on Paper Edition of 295

£750

Boxed Canvas Edition of 195

Unframed/Framed £795/£995

And yet, on the other hand, Ross’s heroes are given a very real human edge. No longer are these characters simply flights of fancy, they are men and women who could well walk amongst us. Ross is careful to pay particular attention to the human qualities that make up his characters, Superman’s integrity, Batman’s determination, informed by his own mantra that these men are not considered superheroes because they are strong or because they have special powers, but because they perform acts that look beyond themselves.

Grim Gargoyles

Giclee on Paper Edition of 295

£695

Boxed Canvas Edition of 195

Unframed/Framed £795/£995

Looking beyond the immediate is precisely what makes Ross’s work so accomplished and widely adored. It is confirmation of his incredible talent that he has been able to bring a fresh approach and perspective to well-known and well-established superheroes such as Batman and Superman.

Superman Forever

Giclee on Paper Edition of 295

£695

Boxed Canvas Edition of 195

Unframed/Framed £795/£995

The chief distinction of Ross’s Dark Knight is being able to look Batman right in the eye. Avid fans of the classic comics will know previous illustrations merely hinted at the eye with glowing white slits, but so typical of Ross, this did not seem real enough. It did not bring Batman off the page, and so, he applied what has become his trademark style; suddenly Batman is transformed and invigorated.

Ross achieves this very real liveliness and vigour in part through his use of reference model, sometimes in full hero costume but often not; the connection to a human before him ground him in reality, the 3D nature of that very interaction somehow works itself into the essence of his art. His characters exist outside of our expectations, outside of their costumes, outside of the canvas, even. Ross describes the introduction to the use of live models as a breakthrough moment in his career:

“before that I had no idea how much I could grow as a draughtsmen. It was a huge turning point, because all through school I hadn’t so much as drawn from photographs – I’d always thought that you had to make it all up out of your head, and that’s how you did ‘fantasy’ illustration.”

Decent on Gotham

Giclee on Paper Edition of 295

£695

Boxed Canvas Edition of 195

Unframed/Framed £795/£995

Masterfully blurring the lines between fantasy and reality, Ross takes a medium and gives it the illusion of a third bringing a new perspective and style to comic book illustration that had never been realised in the genre previously.

Superman: Man of Tomorrow

Giclee on Paper Edition of 295

£750

Boxed Canvas Edition of 195

Unframed/Framed £795/£1,050

His talent is unique, his style inimitable, his use of light and shadow expert, The dramatic composition of his art commands your attention whilst his virtuosity in figural motion maintains it. There are few that can be likened to Ross for the sheer vivacity of his creations and few that can be attributed with changing the landscape of the genre in a manner so befitting the characters within it.

Through his pages, covers and fine art, work by Alex Ross continues to be respected, admired and sought-after. With his creations he certainly cements himself in history as one of the foremost image makers in comic book culture and indeed artistry itself.

Batman: Dark Knight Detective

Giclee on Paper Edition of 295

£750

Boxed Canvas Edition of 195

Unframed/Framed £795/£1,050

Fancy grabbing a Signed Limited Edition Alex Ross piece?

Of course you do! They are flying off our walls like hot cakes so get your order in ASAP!

We are delighted to announce that the stunning new collection of DC Comics art by award-winning artist Alex Ross is being released very soon. To keep up to date with all the latest news about the launch please complete the form below.

Register your interest here and we will send you artwork images when they are released!

Alexander Millar ‘My Way’ Bronze Sculpture.

Known for using his local Tyneside “Gadgies” as models in his work, which is collected by art lovers and celebrities across the globe, Millar is openly inspired by the working men and women of Britain. Millar has successfully transposed his famous Gadgie’s charm from 2D to 3D with this charming representation in bronze.

An edition of 95, this sculpture is available to buy in Edinburgh now priced at £2,350.

Picasso – Important Works on Paper

Saturday 7th June – Sunday 29th June

We are proud to present our stunning collection of Pablo Picasso prints, all originals from the time period. The collection includes signed and unsigned Picasso Exhibition posters from the 1960s to the late 70s.

…

Who is Pablo Picasso?

Pablo Picasso (b.1881) was a Spanish painter who is widely acknowledged to be one of the most important artists of the twentieth century.

He was born Pablo Ruiz, the son of an art teacher and later adopted his mother’s maiden name of Picasso. He grew up in Barcelona, showing artistic talent at an early age. In the early 1900s, he moved between France and Spain before finally settling in Paris in 1904. There, he experimented with a number of styles and produced his own original ones, reflected in his ‘Blue’ and ‘Rose’ periods.

Galerie H. Matarasso, 1957

£1,350

“Painting isn’t an aesthetic operation; it’s a form of magic designed as a mediator between this strange hostile world and us.”

In 1907 Picasso painted Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, a revolutionary work that introduced a major new style, ‘Cubism’, working closely with the French artist Georges Baraque in the development of this style. Picasso’s next major innovation, in 1912, was ‘Collage’, attaching pieces of cloth, newspapers or advertising to his paintings.

Picasso moved from style to style, experimenting with painting and sculpture and became involved with the Surrealist movement. In 1937, he produced his masterpiece, ‘Guernica’, a painting inspired by the destruction of the town in northern Spain by German bombers during the Spanish Civil War. Picasso supported the Republican government fighting against General Franco, and never returned to Spain after Franco’s victory.

“Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness.”

Unlike many artists, Picasso remained in Paris during the German occupation. From 1946 to his death, he lived mainly in the south of France. He continued to produce a huge variety of work including paintings, sculptures, etchings and ceramics as well as a vast array of posters and other works on paper.

L’Heritage De Delacroix, 1964

£1,350

Picasso was involved with a number of women during his life who were often artistic muses as well as lovers. He had four children. On 8th April 1973, he died of a heart attack at his home in Cannes.

“If I paint a wild horse, you might not see the horse…but surely you will see the wildness.”

Style Timeline

Blue Period 1901-1904

This period is characterized by essentially monochromatic paintings in shades of blue and blue-green, only occasionally warmed by other colours. These sombre works, inspired by Spain but painted in Paris, are now some of his most popular works. The works seem to reflect his experience of relative poverty and instability, depicting beggars, circus people or the poor.

Sala Gaspar

£1,475

Rose Period 1904-1906

This period signifies the time when the style of Picasso’s painting regains its romantic quality in a series of cheerful and warm orange and pink colours, During these few years, Picasso was happy in his relationship with Fernande Oliver. Harlequins, circus performers and clowns appear frequently and will populate his paintings at various stages through the rest of his career.

Museo Picasso, Placio Agular

£475

Primitivism and Africa 1907-1909

Picasso looked further afield for inspiration at this time of his career, painting in a style strongly influenced by African and ancient Iberian sculpture. During this time the French empire was expanding into Africa, and African artifacts were being brought back to Paris museums. It was during this period that Picasso painted his most famous work Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, echoing the angular shapes of the African masks and sculptures he saw in the Louvre

SIGNED

Le Dejeuner Sur L’Herbe – Galerie Louise Leris, 1962

£7,350

Cubism 1909-1912

From 1909 onwards Picasso moved toward abstraction, leaving only enough signs of the real world to supply a tension between the reality of the outside of the painting and the complicated meditations on visual language within the frame, resulting in the artistic movement known as Cubism. Picasso analysed natural forms and reduced them into basic geometric parts on a two-dimensional plane. Colour was almost non-existent except for the use of a monochromatic scheme that often included grey, blue and ochre.

SIGNED

Galerie Louise Leris ,1960

£7,350

Classicism and Surrealism 1918-1945

Picasso’s Cubist periods was followed by his neo-classicism, a return to tradition. In the period following the upheaval of World War I, Picasso produced work in a neoclassical style. This return to order is evident in the works of many European artists in the 1920s.

Much of his work after 1927 is also fantastic and visionary in character. The Surrealism movement was growing in strength and popularity and even Picasso could not really avoid being influenced by it.

Galerie Lucie Weill, 1966

£1,350

Post 1945

Picasso’s late works were a mixture of styles, his means of expression in constant flux until the end of his life. Devoting his full energies to his work, he became more daring, his works more colourful and expressive and from 1968 through to 1971 he produced a torrent of paintings and hundreds of copperplate etchings. At the time these works were dismissed by most as pornographic fantasies of an old man or the slapdash works of an artist past his prime. Only later, after his death, when the rest of the art world had moved on from abstract expressionism, did the critical community come to see that Picasso had already discovered neo-expressionism and as, as so often before, ahead of his time.

Galerie Lucie Weill, 1967-1968

£1,250

Sala Gaspar, 1968

£1,950

In the last years of his life painting had become an obsessions with Picasso, and he would date each picture with absolute precision, thus creating a vast amount of similar paintings – as if attempting to crystallize individual moments of time.

From Saturday 17th May Castle Fine Art, Edinburgh are proud to introduce: TEMPER

Iconic album covers that have been given a new spin by internationally acclaimed graffiti artist Temper are on display at the gallery this weekend.

A B-Boy Road

Cover:versions, the latest collection by artist Temper, who has been commissioned by the likes of Roman Abramovich, Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne, Saatchi and Saatchi and created graffiti art for Coca-Cola.

The collectionis a composition inspired by 12 of music’s most iconic records that have been transformed by Temper into works of art. The original pieces are created using oils and acrylic, a first for the graffiti artist who is known for his skills with a spray can.

Maybe Def

In taking well-known album artwork from successful and influential artists and next adding his own iconic graffiti characters – the B-Boys, which have been with him since the start of his career- he’s created a new and exciting body of work that’s relatable and nostalgic. This collection is the harmony between the landscape and the characters, which explores the old and the new. Temper has successfully brought together two artistic concepts in such a way that a new narrative has been created and captures the viewers’ attention.

“Using oil paint was so different to spray paint, spray paint travels out of the spray can at approximately 130mph so in effect my brain has to be working at least 260mph to keep ahead of the paint. Although, when it came to the use of oil it was quite frustrating at first to feel my brain rushing to my usual speed and realising that oil paint moves at 5mph.”

Plan The Exit

Temper has ensured the integrity of his vision is realised through every detail, no matter how minute; the size of the limited edition prints are 12inch x 12inch, the measurements of a traditional album cover.

“My first introduction to art was seeing album covers in a cousin’s house and this is something that has always stuck with me. I’ve always been known for my photo realism and this collection has allowed me to show another side of myself and explore a new medium.”

City Anthems

“When people see the collection they’ll be able to go on a journey through the records and see the skill it has taken to create each background and see how I’m always looking to push the boundaries and break new personal records.”

Each graphic has been created as giclee paper limited edition of 195 and are certified and personally signed by Temper. The prints are priced £395 each.

Nic Joly juxtaposes his incredibly intricate and delicate pieces of art with satirical subject matter and is never afraid to poke fun at himself or others.

From his studio in Alresford, Hampshire, as his starting point the sculptor uses his incredibly dry sense of humour for the minuscule tableaux and you only have to study his inaugural spring collection to see how light-hearted irreverence permeates each piece.

From the devil in a light bulb to a skier hurtling down a mountain of cocaine snow, Joly gains his inspiration from life and human transgression.

Bad Idea?

Sculpture

£695

His obsession with creating such tiny masterpieces from intricately painted paper and cotton-wrapped wire came in 2005, when his first son was born.

“I would leave small doors, people and windows around the house for him to find and be intrigued by. I realised these creations were like small pieces of theatre, echoing the world around us. I started to frame them up behind glass, and here we are.”

The former furniture maker, who has spent his entire life whittling, creating and making objects, has created four stunning pieces of limited edition 3-D artwork each carefully hand-finished, painted and framed.

“I have long been fascinated with the miniature, even as a child making small scenarios out of paper and card to get lost with my imagination. This sense of play has never left me; the only thing that has changed are the subjects and observations I now tackle with my imagination and creations”

Heavy Addiction

Sculpture

£495

Method

The figures in Joly’s works are all made from scratch using wire, thread, clay, paper and paint, which he then places into their own scenes. These scenes often incorporate everyday objects, be it a hollowed out light bulb, figures perched on a gun, or carrying the weight of an addiction such as a cigarette.

On The Edge

Sculpture

£495

With the 3-D editions, Joly created the original figures and then through the lost wax process he cast the figures in bronze and painted them. They are then framed by him in the studio.

“It is so important to me that all aspects of my work are in my complete control, so I do everything from the frame making to the finished works. In my own small way I strive to create my own worlds and sculptures – to ask and bring the forefront dilemmas and questions that we all feel and face day to day – as well as highlight the madness that is all around us.”

Good Idea?

Sculpture

£695

Two of Joly’s satirical works have been made into giclée photographs for the first time.

Two stunning new pieces from RICHARD ROWAN.

Who is Richard Rowan?

From a design and fine art background, after finishing his artist’s training, Richard found an artist’s life very difficult to establish and a designer’s one very frustrating. Richard ended up in the motor sport business ranging from world rally to Formula 1 – travelling worldwide for the next five years.

Having seen so much of the world Richard’s whole outlook on life changed; he never put down his drawing pad, constantly sketching cars and scenery. Never feeling quite at home and constantly living out of a suitcase, Richard would produce art pieces when back at home and sell them at local galleries, this leading to commissions.

Leaving the race track and ‘go go’ lifestyle behind changed everything for Richard and he has since devoted all of his time to art on glass, his preferred medium, using a unique style of oil painting.

Wait and See

Glass

£895

“I do not paint people in the paintings I want the viewer to feel they are the only person privileged to see the view. The works are trying to transport people out of their lives and take them somewhere else.”

Method

Richard’s method is quite unique, it is back-to-front painting on the reverse side of glass, using oils. He begins with his hands underneath the glass painting upwards and looking down on the emerging image. He always paints the foreground details first, then the drying time begins and he gradually progresses back through the piece with the last detail to paint being the furthest point in the distance. From the moment the oil paint is squeezed from the tube to the stage where it is dry takes about a week. Over that week the oil constantly changes consistency from being slick and wet, to tacky, and slowly starting to set dry. Richard only has a widow of a couple of hours at any point in time to get to the paint and achieve the effect he wants.

Have It All

Glass

£795

“Both Pieces in this collection are based on photos I took from a trip to the Lake District about a year ago. I was in a boat, looking towards the shore.”